Srinagar: Infamous government gunman and Ikhwan commander Ghulam Mohammed Lone alias Papa Kishtwari, who was facing trial over the charges of the extrajudicial murder of a man from Nishat town, died in a police hospital in Srinagar on Thursday afternoon, following a massive cardiac arrest.
Following his death, the family members of Ali Mohammad Mir, a resident of Srinagar's Nishat area and a contractor by profession, said that the justice will be served when all accused are hanged.
According to family members, Mir was tortured and killed by Kishtwari and his henchmen on June 26, 1996.
"Justice is still not complete. On June 26, my father had gone outside to get medicine for my grandfather. He never returned. Kishtwari first abducted him, then killed him," Zahoor Ahmad Mir, son of late Ali Mohammad Mir, told reporters in Srinagar.
While demanding that the dead body of Kishtwari should not be buried in Jammu and Kashmir, he said, "I couldn't trace the body of my father so far. How can Kishtwari have a grave here? He has murdered 236 persons in Kashmir."
Talking about the case, he said, "Till 2007 Kishtwari was getting political patronage but after that when the High Court-monitored, investigation was launched, he was arrested and was lodged in jail since then."
He had applied for bail four times but the court never granted. This was because the trial was in its last stage and the Court knew he was a murderer."
"We wanted Kishtwari along with his two henchmen (Ghulam Mohammad Ganai and Khurshid Ahmed Ganai) to be hanged. Our fight for justice will be complete once the remaining two are hanged. He was a real terrorist. People of Pampore know about his terror," he added.
Ghulam Mohammad Lone alias Papa Kishtwari was accused of killing several civilians in Kashmir and was currently lodged in Central Jail Srinagar in a case (FIR vide number 16/2007) under section 364, 342, 302, 201 of RPC of Police station Nishat.
According to police records, Kishtwari had been a junior officer in CRPF before the onset of militancy in 1990. After retirement from the forces, he took the job of a security guard at the Joinery Mills in south Kashmir's Pampore area.
He used to operate in Pampore, where he had converted his residence into a fort where abductees were allegedly tortured at gunpoint and thrown into the river Jhelum in case of death. In 1992, he had surrendered along with his 52 gunmen at Hari Niwas Palace and later joined counter-insurgent outfit Ikhwan ul Muslameen.
Sheikh Ghulam Rasool, a senior local journalist, had complained about Kishtwari's activities at a meeting convened by the Jammu and Kashmir police, a few days later he was abducted by unknown gunmen. One week later, Rasool's body was found in Jhelum.
After the end of Ikhwan reign, Kishtwari tried his luck in politics. His wife, Hafiza Begum, contested in the Assembly and Parliamentary elections while he took an active part in the campaign.
Ali Mohammad Mir's family has been protesting against Kishtwari at Srinagar Press Colony on June 26 every year. Coincidently, June 26 is also observed as 'International Day in Support of Victims of Torture'.
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